1995 Boulder Starship - FINISHED Page 4 - Picture Heavy

Just thought I'd post some pictures of the frame as it begins it build up...
 

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Of course, you can't see the paint removed by chain suck, but apart from that I am proud of her! :)
 
Sometimes it is interesting just what a small world we live in.

Today, I was just scanning the web looking for old photos of Boulders when I came across a site I had never heard of before. Totally by chance, it turned out that one of the moderators on that site was the (ex) UK distributor of Boulder bikes and the very chap I bought my bike from all those years ago.

Small world! Isn't it?

He kept up with Boulders until about 2002 which I think is also about the time that Rich the frame builder started to lose interest and Boulders began to disappear from the planet.... (oooh, I make is sound soo dramatic!! :D). Anyway, I asked about the pivots and got this response - sharing it for anyone else in my position who might have one of these bikes...

"I don't know of anyone that has the pivot shaft or bushes. But they would be very easy to replace. The Bushes are made from Oilite (sintered Bronze) or DU, as for the shaft (Dia 1/2") use either ground Silver steel or Ground 304 Stainless"

So that might help.
 
Original 1997 photos...

I found a couple of original photos of the bike dating back to 1997. At the time, the bike has Pace MXCD forks, Mavic 217 rims and blue Hope hubs.

In this picture it also has two different brake levers. That was because I snapped the original XT level off in a downhill racing crash so I had placed a temporary one on it for the time being.

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Anyway I thought it would be fun to see the old girl how she used to be while I wait on my final parts to complete the current rebuild.
 
Boulders initially came into the UK through sShockwave in nottingham. Thats were my 1990 ish Gazelle came in through (six speed and Rockshox RS1 to match). But they didn't sell many.
Later distribution was through CVI, whi also dealt with risse shocks and latterly they took all the answer spres in the UK from ATB sales.

Yes, the bushes are oilite, turned from bar, and yes, a ground steel shaft. Very easy to machine replacements. When the time comes, give me a shout and I'm sure I can do somehting. You'll have seen my starship Lt. It didn't need bushes as the frame was NOS, but at least there is something to measure. 4 bushes in all IIRC.

Last contact with Mr boulder was about a 2 years ago, but it bounced when I asked about a soft spring for my girlfriends defiant a year ago. Rich mentioned that Boulder wasn't dead, they just build frames mainly locally for existing clients. I'd like a paris roubaix road frame. And I recently missed out on an intrepid in Vegas-- I was just too far out of cash. . :-(
 
Its been a while since I posted on this so I thought it was time for a progress report.

Well I was delayed by a few weeks due to a vacation but I really thought I would have this finished by now. The things left to do is fit my Gore RideOn index cables (borrowing a quality cable cutter tonight so should have this completed soon), fit the chain, fill the hydraulic brakes and tune. Or so I thought. I've hit a snag in that my rebuilt Pace forks are not holding their air so that will ave to be resolved and will ultimately delay the project. It sucks as I am so ready to ride....

Well for now, here are a couple or pictures of the progress:
 

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Well I borrowed some cable cutters and I now have my index cable on plus the chain. I have a little bit of tuning to do, but I am letting the cables all bed down before I do that. So far I must say the new Gore RideOn cables are rather nice.

One thing I have down differently on this build is cross the index cables on the top top. Previously the rear shifter cables ferrules would be right-back and right-front and the front shifter ferrules would be left-back and left-front. Now the read shifter is right-back and left-front and the front shifter is left-back and right-front. Clear? :)

Anyway this change gives me much better cable routing from the top tube to the shifters and less cable rub on the head-tube.

I put an IRD Black Lightning chain on that I have had floating around for a number of years, but so far I have not been terribly impressed with the chain. We'll see how it holds up...
 
Well the IRD Black Lightning chain is a total piece of garbage.

Tuning the shifters I was suffering weird action on the chain moving back and forth on the chain rings like the rings were bent. On closer examination rather that being straight the chain looked like this:

___/------\_____/------\_______


So the chain is pulling itself off the chainrings and sprockets.

NEVER ever buy a IRD chain. This was supposed to be one of their top of the line chains back when it was bought and instead its a POS!!
 
Finished!

To all intents and purposes I have finished the bike. Yes I still have to fix the issue with the leaking air chamber on the Pace forks but for now I have worked around this by changing the forks back to 90mm rather than 70mm.

Also I will change the chain to a SRAM PC-890 at some point because I do not like the IRD chain (see above) but it shifts and is rideable. The only thing missing is a zip tie to hold the front brake hose against the forks.

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